Dr. Xiao-Yang Zhao was born in 1980, in Southwest China. He received his PhD degree in Developmental Biology from Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academic of Sciences in 2010. After that, he was recommended and awarded to be the Young Principal of Investigator of IOZ, CAS. Dr. Xiao-Yang Zhao and colleagues found that some iPS cells failed to generate iPS mice by tetraploid complementation. However, when their nuclei were transferred to enucleated oocytes, cloned animals could be generated. This combination of using iPS cells from transgenic animals and nuclear transfer technologies will accelerate studies of transgenesis in non-rodent animals, specifically in agriculturally important species.

The Transgenic Rats common facility of IFR 26, Biogenouest and IBiSA organizes its third meeting in Nantes, France, on June 6, 2011, about Transgenesis and genome analysis. This one-day meeting, co-sponsored by the International Society for Transgenic Technologies (ISTT), aims to provide an update on transgenesis developments in the generation of transgenic animals and in genome analysis. The meeting is chaired by Ignacio Anegon (ISTT member) and organized by Séverine Menoret (ISTT member), Séverine Rémy, Laurent Tesson, Claire Usal and Tuan. H. Nguyen. Deadline for registration is 25 May 2011. ISTT members are entitled to reduced registation fees.

The meeting is intended for Master, PhD and medical students with a background in molecular biology and genetics as an introduction to future work in these rapidly developing areas of research. It is also intended for post-docs and scientists already working in certain of these fields and who are interested in expanding their knowledge on the potential applications of these new techniques to their models or in neighbouring pathophysiological models of analysis of genes or diseases using genetically modified animals.

The iPS cells, first envisaged by Yamanaka, have an immense potential for regenerative medicine and studies of disease and development. Most recent experiments, published earlier this week, show that the genomic methylation status of iPS cells is surprisingly different from that of pluripotent embryo stem (ES) cells (Lister et al. Nature 2011, February 2), and that this aberrant methylation pattern is maintained in those differentiated cell types derived from the iPS cells. Further experiments would be required to assess the relevance of these new findings regarding the potential applications in Biomedicine of iPS cells. However, the central contribution of Shinya Yamanaka and the beauty and simplicity of his pioneer experiments will remain for ever.

The Foundation BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Awards are associated with a 400.000 € (~545,000 USD) Prize. The 2010 Prize Jury in Biomedicine was chaired by Werner Arber, (Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1978, Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland) and included, as remaining members: Robin Lovell-Badge (MRC National Institute for Medical Research, UK); Dario Alessi (College of Life Sciences, Dundee University, UK); Mariano Barbacid (Spanish National Cancer Research Center-CNIO); José Baselga (Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, USA); Angelika Schnieke, (Department of Animal Science, Technical University of Munich, Germany); and Bruce Whitelaw (The Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, UK). Both Robin Lovell-Badge and Bruce Whitelaw are members of the ISTT.

2009 Lasker Basic Medical Research Awards to John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka

The 2009 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Prize has been awarded to John Gurdon (University of Cambridge) and Shinya Yamanaka (Kyoto University), “for discoveries concerning nuclear reprogramming, the process that instructs specialized adult cells to form early stem cells — creating the potential to become any type of mature cell for experimental or therapeutic purposes“.